10 killed in building collapse in Syria

A building collapsed in Syria’s second city of Aleppo on Sunday killing 10 people including one child, state media reported, adding that rescue efforts were ongoing.

The five-storey structure in the city’s Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhood collapsed “due to a water leak in the building’s foundations”, state news agency SANA quoted a police source as saying.

Rescuers, civil defence forces and firefighters continued their search for others believed to be missing in the rubble, the news agency added.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights meanwhile reported that the 10 victims were all displaced people from the northern district of Afrin.

Nearly half a million people have been killed in Syria’s conflict since it broke out in 2011, and about half of its pre-war population has been displaced.

Many of those displaced have had to move into buildings that are structurally unsound, resulting in relatively frequent collapses.

Last September, a building collapse in the Ferdaws neighbourhood of Aleppo killed 10 people, including three children.